


things are (hopefully) getting better

by acaciapines



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: (and i know she's webby's shadow now but its the principle of things), Gen, Post-Season Finale, i cant believe they killed lena, just some late night chats between kids about their bad day, lena died, like it was a really bad day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 11:56:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15863139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acaciapines/pseuds/acaciapines
Summary: Webby's being clingy, which is...odd. She's also being quiet, letting herself get dragged along, not talking. She's so unlike herself and it's honestly starting to freak Louie out.





	things are (hopefully) getting better

Louie's waken by a soft knock on his bedroom door. Somehow, his brothers stay sleeping, which means he’s the one who’s gonna have to get up and see what this is about. Whatever. He’s hungry anyway, and Dewey’s crushing his arm so this is all for the better.

He manages to pull his arm out from under Dewey and climb over his brothers without waking them. He’s not sure why he’s sleeping closest to the wall? Probably because he was the first one to fall asleep and then Dewey came later and then Huey, which, fair, they might not usually share a bed but they did almost die today, more than usual.

It's been a pretty big day in general. Louie's trying not to think about it. All he knows is they’re back in the mansion and Uncle Scrooge was a dime for a while and they like him again. Mostly. Louie’s still mad he didn’t tell them about their mom, but then again, Uncle Donald didn’t either and Louie never hated him.

Louie makes it to the door with minimal creaking floorboards, and pushes it open to see Webby. She's shifting on her feet and seems surprised when he opens the door, eyes wide in the dark.

“Oh,” she says, “you were asleep. That makes sense. I'm sorry. I'll just go and you can forget this happened and we can never talk about it ever again.”

She turns to leave and Louie steps out of the room to follow her, closing the door behind him. “No, it’s fine,” he says, “I was hungry anyways. Wanna come with me?”

Webby stares at him for a few seconds, then nods, grabbing the sleeve of his shirt as they make their way to the kitchen. She's quiet the entire way there, which leaves Louie time to think that he doesn’t get around Webby. He's not sure if he likes it.

Firstly, she’s being clingy, which is…odd. She’s quiet, letting herself be dragged along by him, not talking. It’s honestly starting to freak Louie out. Webby’s always…high energy. Always moving and bouncing around, never staying still. It’s tiring sometimes, but it’s Webby, and even if Louie can’t always keep up with her, he doesn’t hate it. It’s who she is.

“Uh, Webby?” he asks as they emerge into the dim light of the kitchen, “are you…okay?” She’s still holding onto his pajama sleeve.

“What?” she asks, and shakes herself, “oh, uh, I’m fine! Everything’s cool here. Ha!” She blinks and looks around, reorienting herself. “Why are we in the kitchen?”

“I was hungry,” Louie says, “I said I was getting food?”

“Right. I knew that.” Webby lets go of his sleeve and wraps her arms around herself. “I can go,” she says.

“No, I’m fine with you being here,” Louie says. He goes to the pantry to see if there’s any chips. Something’s not right here. Webby’s not acting like herself and today’s been awful and oh. Oh.

Louie didn’t lose anybody, except maybe his mom but she’s been gone forever and he can’t remember her, anyway. He wasn’t hatched yet. but Webby…

Lena. Webby lost her best friend.

“Webby, are you…do you want to talk about it?” Louie asks, and he turns back to face her. She’s standing in the doorway, still hugging herself, and she’s looking down at the ground.

“I dunno,” Webby says, “you guys are all…I’m just really sad I think and Granny talked to me but she didn’t get it and didn’t help and I wanted to hang out with you and Dewey and Huey but you were all together and I didn’t want to interrupt that ‘cause I don’t really belong…and then I decided to anyways and you were asleep and now we’re here? I kinda don’t know what happened between then and now.”

“Oh,” Louie says. He’s not equipped to handle this. At all. He doesn’t even know how he feels about this whole thing, how is he supposed to help Webby? “I don’t think you’re interrupting anything,” he says, instead, because that’s at least something he can address. “Like, I wouldn’t mind, and I don’t think my brothers would either.”

If he’s being honest with himself, Louie’s still half-asleep. Maybe this isn’t the best time to be talking about this. But Webby looks like she hasn’t slept, so maybe it is the perfect time. “You do belong,” he says, “I think you do.”

“Thanks,” Webby says, but she sounds…not insincere, but she doesn’t believe it. Her voice is flat and nothing like how she usually is. “I’m just gonna go now…g’night, Louie.”

“Wait!” Louie says, before she can go, “me and my brothers are…” Oh man, is he really doing this? Apparently. “Today was terrible so we’re all sharing a bed. Do you want to…join us? It’s a big bed and I don’t want you to be alone.”

Webby brightens at that, grinning. “Today was terrible!” she says, “it was! The worst!” She laughs and bounds closer to Louie, but her grin falls. “Do you…do you mean the thing you said?”

“Yeah,” Louie says, “you’re basically my sister anyways. The others won’t mind.”

He knows this for a fact, because Dewey actually mentioned inviting Webby. But everyone was too tired to get up and find her. That was probably a mistake. If it was Huey or Dewey, Louie would’ve gotten up to find them. Same if it was the reverse: if Louie was the one missing, his brothers would’ve gone to find him. They should add Webby to that list.

“I am?” Webby asks. “Oh.”

“You are,” Louie tells her. “You’re family. Even with…you know, you still have us.”

“Lena,” Webby says. “You can say her name. I'm…” She sighs as they make their way back to the bedroom, Louie without any food. There wasn’t anything worthwhile and he really just went so Webby wouldn’t run off. “I really miss her and I know it’s been less than a day, but she sacrificed herself for me! I thought she was lying but she wasn’t! She just…she just wanted me to be okay and then she went and was dumb and died for me and that’s stupid! Why would she do that? She’s…” Webby trails off and sniffs. “I want her back,” she says.

Louie wasn’t as close to Lena as Webby, probably never could be, so he can’t even begin to imagine how much Webby misses her. He does, but it’s not…it’s not as soul-deep as Webby’s missing is.

“Maybe we can figure something out,” Louie says, though he has no idea what he’s talking about, “Uncle Scrooge knows a lot about this kinda stuff. He might have something.”

“I don’t want might!” Webby says, “I want her back right now even if I know that’s never happening ever again! It’s not fair. I lost her and…and I almost lost you.”

“What?” Louie says, “why would you think that? I’m not about to sacrifice myself, so I'm not going anywhere.”

“You were gonna leave,” Webby says, soft. “You and Dewey and Huey and you guys are like, my only friends-hopefully-family, okay? If you left and Lena left then it’d just be me and Granny and I love her but it’s not the same. You were just gonna leave me and I don’t know what I was gonna do if that happened. I think I was telling myself it wasn’t gonna happen, and it didn’t, but if it did I'd just…I'd be alone. I don’t wanna be alone again.”

Webby goes quiet.

Louie doesn’t know how to answer that, because she’s right. He was going to leave with his brothers and Uncle Donald and…what? He would’ve left Webby behind. He wasn’t thinking at that time, he was just mad, but…he’s gotten used to having Webby around, just like he’s used to having his brothers around. And he was going to leave her.

“I dunno,” Webby says, “I know I'm being selfish kinda. You don’t have to stay because I can’t go with you. I know you’re staying now but if you had left it would’ve been fair because you were mad and I was mad too but not just about your mom. I guess I was more sad? I don’t really remember. It was kinda a blur and I’m glad everything is over and sorta normal again, even if it’s not really normal. Louie?”

At that, Webby stops walking, so Louie stops, too, and looks at her. “Yeah?” he asks.

“I've never had a brother before,” she says. “Well, brothers, but you’re the only one here right now. And I guess I've also never had a sister, but you aren’t a girl so brother.”

“What about Lena?” Louie asks. Webby shakes her head.

“She’s different,” Webby says, “she’s my best friend. I don’t want her to be my sister, ‘cause she’s not like you and Dewey and Huey. I feel different with her. But back to the point, thanks for saying that…that I'm like your sister.”

“Hey,” Louie says, just as they round the corner and return to his bedroom door, “it’s true. Are you ready to go to bed?”

“I'm really tired,” Webby says, and follows Louie into his room. Dewey’s still asleep, but Huey’s sitting up, rubbing his eyes.

“Where did you go?” he asks, and then notices Webby. “Oh. Sorry we didn’t go find you, Webby. I felt bad about it when I woke up.”

“It’s okay,” Webby says. “Is there enough room…?”

“Yeah,” Huey says, “you can climb over Dewey and just shove him to the side if you need to.”

Huey flops back down, and closes his eyes. Louie climbs up onto the bed, steps over his brothers, and curls back up in his sleeping place. Dewey grumbles something when Louie shoves him away to make space for Webby.

“C’mon,” he whispers, “climb over the others. I made space.”

Webby does, hesitant, but once she’s lying down between Louie and Dewey she yawns. “Mmm,” she says, “I've been up for like…too long.”

The bed’s a bit cramped; Louie might’ve been exaggerating when he said it was a big bed. But whatever, he’s slept in worse conditions and doesn’t really mind. “We all have,” he says, and tries to ignore the fact that Webby is crushing his arm just like Dewey was doing earlier. At least when he falls asleep he won’t have to deal with that. “You good?”

“Not really,” Webby says. “But…better.”

“Go to sleeeeep,” Dewey whines, words slurring together, “Ugh someone’s got their foot on my baaaack.” He mumbles something Louie can’t make out before going quiet again.

“We should listen to him,” Louie says, lowering his voice. “Night, Webs.”

Webby probably responds in kind, but Louie’s already asleep.

(It takes him almost ten minutes to untangle himself from his siblings in the morning, and he trips over Huey’s leg at the last second and falls to the floor, but Louie wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Webby wakes second and hugs him so hard he can’t breathe and he wouldn’t trade that for anything, either.)

**Author's Note:**

> i appreciate ducktales 2017 for two main reasons: the fact that the boys consider webby their sister, and the fact that webby has a very big crush on lena that im hoping is intentional. webby literally called lena 'a beautiful idiot' there is no straight explanation for this.
> 
> but yeah. im love webby. i can't wait for della to come back and have a mini panic attack as she sees four kids and is like 'four?? did i have four?? i thought there were three eggs? did one of the eggs hatch into two ducklings???'


End file.
